Every building permit in Lemon Grove, for an ADU, a remodel, an addition or a new house, comes from its Building Division, which still takes applications only on paper at its counter, with each review cycle taking 30 days or more. The City's ADU code was last rewritten in 2022, and on December 10, 2025 the state's housing department found it out of line with state law on fifteen points; no amendment or reply has appeared on a City agenda since. On every point the state named, state law is the rule: three units on a single-family lot, up to eight detached on a lot with apartments, the state's heights, and no front setback that blocks an 800 square foot unit. The 2025 fire map puts parts of Lemon Grove in high and moderate zones, with no very high zone.
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BHI Builders takes on ADUs, remodels, additions and custom homes in Lemon Grove, where state law governs the points the state's housing department found in the City's 2022 ADU code and one pre-approved plan is posted. What follows comes from Lemon Grove's code and handouts, the state's findings and the statutes above them.
Who issues permits here, and how does plan check run?
Lemon Grove's Building Division takes applications only in person at its counter, by appointment, usually as four folded sets of full-size sheets; it does not accept online or digital submittals. Building, Engineering, Fire and Planning review most projects, each review typically taking 30 days at least and repeating on each resubmittal, and the City treats a plan review as not yet submitted until the documents are in and the fees paid. Heartland Fire & Rescue does the fire review, the Lemon Grove Sanitation District takes its own application for added sewer discharge, and the inspection card is the certificate of occupancy.
The City's code sets no ADU completeness or decision clock, which the state's findings named. State law does: the City must say within 15 business days whether the application is complete and decide it within 60 days after that, or it is deemed approved, and nothing in it waits for fees.
For the projects homeowners bring most often:
- An ADU or junior ADU: paper sets at the counter, the Sanitation District's application, Heartland's fire review, Helix's meter options, and a site plan to the City's guidance with slopes, drainage and the nearest hydrant.
- Kitchen and bath work behind the walls: a counter permit priced by valuation, its plan check a large share of the permit fee.
- An addition or a second story: the zone's height, 25 feet in the low and medium density zones, its 25-foot front setback, a grading permit past the City's small-job limits, and the school fees above 500 square feet.
- A new house: full plans, grading and slope setbacks, the fire map's construction rules in its high and moderate pockets, and the City's parkland, transportation and sewer fees per home.
Where do Lemon Grove's ADU rules differ from state law?
Lemon Grove's ADU and junior ADU rules are Municipal Code 17.24.060(D)(1), rewritten by Ordinance 461, introduced unanimously on May 17, 2022 and read a second time on June 7, 2022. On December 10, 2025 the state's housing department reviewed that section and found it out of line with state law on fifteen points, asking for a written response by January 9, 2026. No ordinance amending the section and no reply appears on any Council or Planning Commission agenda through October 6, 2026, and the code still shows the 2022 text.
State law gives a city 30 days to answer such findings and voids an ordinance whose city does not, after which the state's standards apply directly. Whether Lemon Grove answered is not in any document we read, so ask Planning at intake; either way, on each point the state named, the statute is the rule, and the table states it. The City's 2023 ADU handout already follows the state on heights.
| Rule | In the City of Lemon Grove |
|---|---|
| Where | The RL, RLM, RM, RMH, RP and CG zones, per the handout. |
| Units on a single-family lot | The code says one ADU and one junior ADU, and one ADU on a lot with more than one house; the state's findings say a converted unit, a new detached unit and a junior ADU are allowed together, on lots with one house or several, and the statute governs. |
| Apartment lots | Two detached units under the code and the handout; up to eight on a lot with existing apartments, never more than its homes, under state law, which governs. Converted space for one unit up to a quarter of the homes. |
| Size | At least 150 square feet, and at most the house's size or 1,200, whichever is less, with 800 allowed beside a smaller house; state law sets no maximum below 850, or 1,000 with more than one bedroom, which matters beside a house of 800 to 849 square feet. |
| Height | The code holds a detached unit to 16 feet and an attached one to the house's height in the zone. State law, which the handout already follows, allows 18 near major transit with 2 more for a matching roof pitch, 18 beside a multistory apartment building, and for an attached unit 25 feet or the zone's limit, whichever is lower. |
| Setbacks | 4 feet at the sides and rear. The code applies the zone's 25-foot front setback, and the handout allows the front setback only if there is nowhere else; state law bars any front setback that blocks an 800 square foot unit, and gives a unit in existing space none and others at most 4 feet. |
| Other zone rules | The handout's 10-foot separation, open space and landscaping lines cannot apply to the units state law makes every city approve, nor block an 800 square foot unit; the code itself exempts ADUs from the accessory building spacing. |
| Parking | One space per ADU, with the state's exemptions and transit counted to include a bus stop, and none for a junior ADU. The code and handout make a junior ADU carved from a garage replace its parking; state law bars that, and adds no parking when the ADU comes with a new house. |
| Sprinklers | None unless the house has them, and an ADU does not trigger them in the house. |
| Design | The code's "same or complementary" style and equal or better materials are subjective, said the state; only objective standards may apply. |
| Junior ADU | 150 to 500 square feet, not inside an apartment building. The code and handout require the owner on site and record it in the deed restriction; state law asks occupancy only with a shared bathroom and keeps it out of the deed, and governs. |
| Rentals | The code sets no term; state law wants more than 30 days for the mandatory units and junior ADUs. Vacation rentals are banned in every zone, and home-sharing, by a host living on site, needs a permit, with an ADU counted as its own home. |
| Selling a unit on its own | A junior ADU stays with the house for good; an ADU may be sold apart only through a qualified nonprofit, and Lemon Grove has adopted no condominium path. |
Two more places the City's documents lag:
- Engineering's review of the City's own plan puts a connection fee on any ADU of 750 square feet or more; state law ties 750 square feet to impact fees and ties connection fees to whether a new connection is needed, and governs.
- The western Central Avenue overlay allows one house and accessory buildings until a master plan is adopted, without naming ADUs; state law requires ADUs in residential zones, so raise it at intake for a lot there.
Can you build from a pre-approved ADU plan here?
One, with conditions. The City set up its pre-approval program in early 2025, open to plans from anyone, and hired YWR Architects for a prototype; the posted set is a one-story, two-bedroom, 797 square foot detached ADU with a porch, in stucco or wood siding, drawn to the 2025 California codes, with revisions of October and December 2025. Engineering's second review in December 2025 said none of its first comments had been addressed, and the set's scope line reads one and a half baths where the staff report says one. The City's page warns that no changes are allowed, not even moving a window, and that some disciplines cannot pre-approve.
The City's 2025 report says a standard plan may be reviewed in as little as 30 days, matching the 30-day review state law gives a plan pre-approved in the current code cycle; confirm at intake that this one has been signed off.
Fire zones, grading and the downtown plan
The State Fire Marshal's map of March 24, 2025 shows only high and moderate zones in Lemon Grove, as before no very high land, and the City adopted it unchanged by Ordinance 468 on May 20, 2025, in force June 19. The 2025 Fire Code, in force January 1, 2026, treats high and very high zones as hazardous fire areas and allows a 16-foot driveway only up to 150 feet serving two homes, which can matter for a unit deep on its lot. No local sprinkler amendment was found in the fire or building codes.
Lemon Grove has no hillside overlay; its grading chapter does the work, with a permit needed past fifty cubic yards, three feet of cut or fill, or slopes steeper than two to one, and slope setbacks by the height of the cut or fill. The 2026 Downtown Specific Plan, which lists ADUs among its housing types and would grow the downtown area from 58 to 219 acres, went to the Planning Commission in September 2026 and has not reached the Council. A homeowners association may not ban an ADU or junior ADU or limit it unreasonably, under Civil Code 4751.
What does Lemon Grove charge for an ADU?
The City's fiscal 2026-27 fee schedule, adopted April 21, 2026, prices building permits by valuation with plan check at most of the permit fee, adds green building and storm water charges, a fire review fee per address and the regional transportation fee per new home, raised on July 1, 2026, and parkland fees per unit by zone. It has no ADU fee waiver. Both the transportation and parkland fees are impact fees in state law's terms, so neither reaches an ADU of 750 square feet or less, and a larger one pays in proportion to the house.
- Sewer. The Lemon Grove Sanitation District, whose board is the City Council, charges a connection fee per equivalent dwelling unit and a yearly service charge, raised from August 2026; state law limits a connection fee on an ADU to a new connection and keeps it in proportion.
- Water. Helix Water District lets an added ADU share the house's meter, or upsize it, or take its own at Helix's and the County Water Authority's capacity fees by meter size.
- School fees. The Lemon Grove School District and Grossmont Union High share the state's maximum, 62 and 38 percent, and the elementary district publishes no figure; and projects no larger than 500 square feet are exempt.
How many ADUs Lemon Grove permits
Lemon Grove's ADU permits peaked at 44 in 2024 and came to 29 in 2025.
- 92018
- 82019
- 112020
- 292021
- 322022
- 292023
- 442024
- 292025
Lemon Grove's ADU permits from its yearly HCD reports (Table A2's ADU line), counted at permit rather than finish and taking in junior ADUs; the 2023 report holds two units from 2024. The City's staff reports split them: 40 ADUs and 4 junior ADUs for 2024, 19 and 10 for 2025, with 31 ADUs and 8 junior ADUs finished in 2025. The Housing Element aims for 15 a year.
Recent changes in Lemon Grove
What has changed in the City's permit rules since 2025, newest first.
HCD already counts Lemon Grove's code out of line on fifteen points, and its one ADU plus junior ADU now trails AB 956 too; its transportation and parkland fees are impact fees, so a unit on a lot with up to two ADUs pays them past 750 only. Explained here.
The Planning Commission heard the 2026 Downtown Specific Plan, which lists ADUs among its housing types; the Council has not acted.
The Sanitation District's new sewer service charges took effect.
The regional transportation fee per new home rose under the fiscal 2026-27 schedule, adopted April 21, 2026.
Ordinance 473 adopted the 2025 California building codes.
The City's response to the state's ADU findings came due; none appears on a City agenda.
The 2025 Fire Code took effect under Ordinance 469.
The state's housing department found the City's ADU section out of line with state law on fifteen points.
The 2025 fire hazard map took effect under Ordinance 468, adopted May 20, 2025, with high and moderate zones only.
The Planning Commission set up the pre-approved ADU plan program, open to plans from anyone.
How BHI approaches a Lemon Grove project
What we look at first on a Lemon Grove lot.
A Lemon Grove project starts on paper at the City's counter, so we plan the sets and the review cycles early, then check the lot against state law where the 2022 code lags, and the Sanitation District's sewer application. Book a call to go through yours.
What an ADU might rent for in Lemon Grove
Rents for ADUs alone go unpublished, so the table carries HUD's FY2027 Small Area Fair Market Rent for Lemon Grove's ZIP code, the ROI calculator's first input: by bedroom count, the rent that 40 percent of recent movers paid at most, utilities counted.
| ZIP | Studio | 1 bed | 2 bed | 3 bed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 91945 | $1,820 | $1,940 | $2,350 | $3,120 |
HUD's FY2027 rents for ZIP 91945 by bedroom count, as the ROI calculator stores them. Run your own lot through the ROI calculator for 30 years.
Next steps
Read your lot against state law, the City's code and the fire map, price the unit, then go to the pages that fit.